Post by boomboxI recently heard someone claim that Bruckner's 9th contains quotes
from Parsifal. When asked what and where, he would only say (in a
very condescending fashion) that he would offer us a hint that it's in
the adagio and it's a "compound quote."
Is anyone here aware of such a quotation?
"The final movement of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is not "absolute
music," since it contains religious symbols and allusions to the
composer's approaching death. This conclusion is supported by taking
into account not only sketches, structural analysis, and Bruckner's own
hermeneutic statements, but also interpretations of borrowed material.
In his opening theme, for example, Bruckner strongly alludes to his
Fifth Symphony, the Sehnsuchtsmotiv from Wagner's Tristan, and the
"Dresden Amen" from Parsifal. The following climax (or Klangfläche)
quotes Liszt's "symbol of the cross" from the Graner Messe, and the
second theme (letter C) presents and develops a motive ("miserere")
taken from the D Minor Mass. Several other self-quotations (from the
Benedictus of the Mass in F Minor and the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies)
reinforce the impression of the look back suggested by Bruckner himself
for the passage at letter B ("Abschied vom Leben," mm. 29-44)."
Floros, Constantin. "Zur Deutung der Symphonik Bruckners: Das Adagio der
Neunten Symphonie." In Bruckner-Jahrbuch 1981, ed. Franz Grasberger,
89-96. Linz: Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Gutenberg, 1982.